1 comments about Fun with Rock Painting Kit (Art Start!).

1. Grandkids absolutely love it - bought one first and had to immediately order three more. Plan to get more to have on hand for birthday party gifts. (grandkids are 7 to 13)

2 comments about Twelve Degas Dancers Bookmarks (Small-Format Bookmarks).

1. It's hard to review bookmarks - they have such a simple job to do. However, I admit that not only are these bookmarks visually inviting, but are quiet useful coming in a book of twelve. It's nice to have a spare ready - particularly when you tend to juggle several books as I do!



2. I loved these book marks. I am a teacher and I plan to use them in my classroom. What better way to introduce your students to great works of art. I love Degas and I am sure my students will learn to love him too.The price is also right! You can afford to give a few away and still have plenty for yourself to enjoy.

5 comments about Digital Manga Workshop: An Artist's Guide to Creating Manga Illustrations on Your Computer.

1. I was looking for a book that would help me learn digital art with Photoshop Element 6 (the program was given to me as a gift) and thought I would give this book a try since I am serious about this particular hobby (down with Microsoft Paint!). One of the most important tools they mention (Freeform pen, which is what you use for shadowing) is not an included tool in the updated Element version! I've tried web searching to see if there was a pen tool, or how to shadow manga artwork with a different tool offered in Photoshop Element... so far I have found nothing! What a huge let down!
   
   There was nothing wrong with the book itself, but I didn't have the old Photoshop version to utilize this manual... so I wrote this review as a warning to those who have the same program as I do and are thinking about buying this book. It would be helpful if there was a manga digital art book out there that was updated and showed users how to use photoshop element program.



2. Don't let the title fool you.
   
   While the subject matter covered within the book is aimed at "Manga" based characters, there is a lot of great information contained within that can be easily applied to ALL cartoonists seeking enlightenment on using digital techniques to create their work.
   
   The book covers many subjects, including the required tools (hardware and software), the pros and cons of digital drawing vs. analog, and, of course, useful techniques for scanning, inking and coloring your work. There are many color examples to look at and study, and the text is easy to read and digest - making it a great book for younger artists.
   
   Experienced traditional artists who are considering digital workflows should also consider this book. The nuts and bolts of getting started are sure to get any artist quickly up to speed.
   
   Many of the techniques are presented using both Photoshop and Corel Painter, so if you have one or the other, you should be able to progress through the techniques with no problem.
   
   I highly recommend this book for artists young and old who wish to learn more about creating their work digitally - whether its in the Manga style or not.



3. When I first got Photoshop, intent on learning how to color my drawings in that comic book style, I didn't know where to start. So, I started surfing Amazon for computer coloring books, and bought a few. Some of them were good, some just plain awful, but of all of the ones I bought, this is certainly the best.
   
   "Digital Manga Workshop" is an excellent introduction for amateurs looking to get their work colored via computer. It provides handy, step-by-step guides on the process, and is extremely useful. Even the novice Photoshop user (much of the book focuses on the use of Photoshop, much to my delight) will have no trouble following their instructions. I cannot recommend this highly enough.



4. As many have already stated, this book has little to specifically to do with manga. I personally think the title and drawing style were probably chosen to be more catchy and specific than just "digital coloring." There's no shortage of digital artwork out there that has nothing to do with manga or anime style, and this book is relevant to anyone wanting to learn to color their artwork digitally, regardless of how it's drawn.
   
   Whereas many web coloring tutorials are either very locked in about techinque or horrendously general, Digital Manga Workshop covers several specific options. It shows not just how to color in the typical cel style of a lot of digital artwork, but also airbrush, painting and watercolor styles as well.
   
   The book gives instruction in both Photoshop and Painter depending on which is best suited for the style being covered and even offer some low-to-no cost alternatives to those programs.
   
   The book also covers the important step before and after the coloring process, such as scanning and digitally inking drawings so you have god base to start with, and export so all your hard work doesn't end up as a blotchy web graphic.
   
   Digital Manga Workshop definitely isn't the be all/end all book of digital coloring, but considering the wealth of information covered for such a low price, it's surely a worthwhile book to have around



5. I wish I could give this book a good review. Unfortunately, I can't. The title is very misleading. If you expect this book to teach you how to draw manga images digitally (as I did), you will be very disappointed. 99.9% of all manga images are black and white, and use frames, speech bubbles with text, sound effects, black and white line effects, and tones (black and white patterns that read as gray when printed). This book does NOT cover any of this.
   
   It also contains some ludicrously incorrect information. For instance, it says that unlike American comics (where you have a penciler, inker, and letterer), Japanese artists do everything themselves. Nothing could be further from the truth, as any interview with a mangaka (Japanese manga artist) or perusal of the copyright page will tell you. In fact, most manga are created by a primary artist and several assistants.
   
   Here's an even worse example. In the introduction to digital inking, they say, "In manga-style artwork, inked lines are usually contour lines...the linework of a character's hand would depict the outline of the fingers, but wouldn't show shading, wrinkles, or folds in the skin. It is up to the colors to show depth and texture." Um, except, manga is published exclusively IN BLACK AND WHITE. There are no colors! Have they ever read a manga? My mind boggles. Pick up any manga and open it and you will see for yourself. They go on to say, that "inking techniques such as hatching, stippling, and spotting black...are atypical in manga style art, but can be employed for stylistic purposes to achieve a distintice look."
   
   This would be news to CLAMP, the studio that created many manga bestsellers, who are famous for their beautiful black and white line work. Or to, well, any of the mangakas, really.
   
   This book teaches very basic color, digital techniques in anime `cel' style. It focuses on Photoshop and Painter, and ignores Illustrator and the manga-specific software (such as ComicWorks and Manga Studio) completely. They don't even cover the fact that most Japanese mangakas as well as most American digital art, is done on the Mac platform.
   
   I gave it two stars because it does teach some simple techniques to create layered, color digital art, but these techniques are better covered in the many free online tutorials available on the web or in other, more comprehensive art technique books.

2 comments about Sound Art: Beyond Music, Between Categories (Book & CD).

1. This is one of the worst books on sound art I have ever read. Its like reading an article in college newspaper. The research is incredibly week, it is as if Licht referred only to The Wire for his information. He makes many mistakes concerning John Cage (who made Sound Art in the early 60s and NOT just for "the stage") He takes cheap shots at Stockhausen of whom he seems to know NOTHING about (Cardew was wrong by the way). There is more to sound art than what can be found on Forcedexposure. This book is just awful, and I am afraid it will be used and referred to by teachers and curators in the future, which is a crying shame. And if you think I'm wrong, do some research on Sound Art and you will see that there are many many many books better than this one. After I bought it, I brought it right back and got a full refund I then used that money to order a Stockhausen CD. Please shop around before you buy this book.



2. Years ago, a critic remarked that so-called Performance Art might have been called either Theater or Dance if those media were less uptight. That's how I feel about sound art - if Music were more open as a discipline, we wouldn't need to have a special category of stuff called sound art. We would simply recognize that for most of the 20th century, music and visual art blurred into each other, and the artistic use of so-called non-musical sounds became increasingly important. Today, in the age of the sample, where Foley artists and composers are often one and the same, and most undergrad art students have made at least one sound piece in their lives, it's useful to have Alan Licht's clearly written, well-illustrated, handsomely designed volume on how composers and artists have worked with sound in the 20th century. Licht hits all the significant movements (Futurism, Dada, Fluxus, etc.) that contributed to sound art, and does a good job of exploring the range of possibilities (from sound sculpture to sound installation to Christian Marclay's floor covered with vinyl records). While I might wish that some of the younger contemporary artists working with sound got more space, you can't have everything. A few years ago, the Pompidou Center in Paris did an exhibit called Son et Lumiére, and if you can find the catalog (and read French) it provides the history of the connection of music and visual art missing in Licht's book. But until that's available in an affordable English version, Licht's book is probably the best available on the topic. And the handy CD included means you can use your ears as well as your eyes to consider the topic, a welcome addition.

3 comments about Side By Side: The Journal of a Smalltown Boy.

1. This is a lusciously drawn graphic novel about two friends and lovers. The story is interesting enough, but I find that, in the end, the author is more interested in deopicting sex scenes than in developing the story.Not that I'm complaining: the sex scenes are hot!



2. Side by Side by Mioki is a very sweet story with all the zeal of young love. Mioki's comic style allows him to explore every side of the passionate love story of title characters, Rick and Evan. The artwork is bright and clean, with exceptional attention on the backgrounds as well as the men who's lives inhabit this story. The detail really drives home how much the two main characters love, need, and want each other. It's an intense passion that we all want in our own lives. Like a feel good movie or a great novel, Mioki draws you in, so you can experience all the rapture that this simple, yet amazing story has to tell.



3. Mioki. "Side By Side: The Journal of a Small Town Boy", Bruno Gmunder, 2008.
   
   Evan and Rick
   
   Amos Lassen
   
   Mioki has been drawing comics for a long time and in "Side By Side" he gives us a new kind of graphic novel--one that is very gay and very, very bold.
   "Side by Side" is the story of Evan and Rick who have been best friends since kindergarten days. They live in a small town and one rarely sees one without the other. Rick is gay and lusts after Evan who thinks he is straight. Evan moves to an unnamed big city and shortly afterwards Rick follows him there and they boys realize that they deeply love another. Evan and Rick meet Billie and Charlie and the four become the closest of friends who party and sleep together.
   "Side by Side" is a look at gay life with the ups and downs, the sadnesses and the joys. But this is a book that is all visual and leaves nothing to the imagination. I am sure that some may consider it porn but it is more than that. The drawings are very graphic and Mioki shows many sex scenes but the book never loses its charm and heart.

3 comments about I AM This Book PG: (One Show).

1. Some really good ads. Nice ideas. But I was hoping it would be full of ideas you wished you had thought of. Still inspiring.



2. If you plan on reading the creative in this book, you might want to invest in a Sherlock Holmes-esque magnifying glass (and maybe the hat for fun). Better yet, save your 40-some-odd bucks and pick up the Design Annual instead. Thoroughly, thoroughly disappointing edition.



3. Ok, we have a bunch of advertising festivals. Some are good, some are bad. I think the One Show is the best one around. It's annual book is really good. If you are getting just one advertising book this year, pick this one.
   I only wish that the dvd came with the awarded tv spots....

5 comments about Cézanne's Composition: Analysis of His Form with Diagrams and Photographs of His Motifs.

1. Many of Cézanne's paintings are essentially composed of flat, homogenous planes. He has no interest in textures and takes great freedom in choosing colours and distributing them patchwise. He also disregards proportions and perspective, making receding objects such as roads, mountains and hills stand up straight, so to speak, to the picture plane. Thus each plane in the painting "remains comparatively flat and parallel to the picture plane", but still the painting has a definite feeling of depth because of "the three-dimensional effect that a sequence of the same planes creates through overlapping" (plate XIII). "Cézanne's genius in organizing three-dimensional space is the basic foundation of his composition" and doing so by the plane colour patch approach agrees with the principle that a painting "must remain faithful to its own structure, to its fundamental two dimensions" (section XV). The organisation of space is achieved by the "tension" or "movement" created where planes overlap, and this is Loran's main framework for analysing Cézanne's paintings. With some imagination and many useful geometrical diagrams we can sum up the effects of the overlaps to a general movement; usually some sort of circular movement, always staying within the picture frame. Loran is very faithful to this point of view, even blaming Cézanne when it doesn't apply. In his analysis of a Sainte Victoire painting (plate X) he finds such a circular movement and concludes: "It is this circular movement that gives the painting it ultimate 'closed' effect. Actually, this canvas has many elements of open form ... personally, I find these latter elements insufficiently resolved and somewhat disturbing." Besides this analytic framework, Loran also makes more traditional analyses in terms of balance, dynamics, etc., and he also spends far too much time nagging about two pet topics: Cézanne's famous colour modulations are in fact of incidental importance and Cézanne anticipated Picasso and Braque.



2. When I first read this book, over twenty-five years ago, I thought it was the most remarkable book ever written on how an artist composes and organizes his or her creative process. Over the years, I've returned to it many times. Having recently re-read the book I find I am still thrilled by Loran's ability to illuminate the special qualities within Cézanne's canvases. As an artist and art educator, Loran was in a unique position to comprehend how this artist balanced the formal, intuitive, and experiential aspects of composition. All of this comes through admirably and clearly. Although I imagine some people might find the graphic diagrams cold and remote from the vitality of Cézanne's painting, I think a close reading of the book demonstrates that an illustrative graphic can help us reach a deeper understanding of the artist at work, in this case Cézanne. If you are a fan of Cézanne, definitely read this book! If you are interested in understanding the artistic mind, definitely read this book.



3. Pages 17 to 24 are a so called "Illustrated Glossary" and are worth buying the book for. The classic rules of space and depth and planes are explained in most of their complexity. Then he discusses many many examples of Cezanne's work and how they use the principles of space, planes, and depth. A masterpiece and extensive in its scope. If you really want this type of abstract picture understanding you will not be disappointed. Very highly recommended.



4. The book is trully great.... very well written and thoroughly analized...My only problem with it was the lack of colour plates (understanding that the study of his technique is concentrated on the orchestration of planes and volumes). I believe the study of this master requires colours... in order to fully appreciate his methods but also becuse of the pleasure of merely being a spectator and enjoying his art for what it really is...a ballet of fantasy and life!
   Appart from that I do believe it is a must for any lover of art.



5. This book is a must read not only for students of Cezanne and Cubism, but for anyone who would like to understand how a composition is put together. By comparing photographs of subjects painted by Cezanne, to the paintings created, one can see what interested the master in his own work. Cezanne's classic remark about Monet ("He is only an eye. But what an eye!")is clearly relevant here: Cezanne is not only an eye function, but a meditation on the process of visual construction per se. A stimulating and important book.

4 comments about Renaissance Rivals: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Titian.

1. I had the pleasure of being in Professor Goffen's Italian High Renaissance class in the early 90's. She was a terrific professor, a true life force in the class room, and anyone who was lucky enough to have learned from her will never forget her. Sadly, she has since passed on, but her great intellect and love of her area of expertise live on in her definitive volume on Bellini, and in this book. A tremendous achievement.



2. Goffen has provided a clear, engaging, and refreshing view of Michelangelo and allows for further study and questioning.
   
   I do want to make a remark regaring the review called "Qualified Praise." Goffen does not state that Michelangelo died in 1566. She adheres to the February 17, 1564 date:
   
   "Instead, Vasari paraphrased an anecdote reported by an unknown correspondent, writing within a month of Michelangelo's death on 17 February 1564." (p. 117).



3. Goffen's book is a powerful and thrilling volume of scholarship. Having passed away of breast cancer, the author rests knowing that her words and scholarship will continue to delight and inform many people desiring a new take on the overly discussed pieces of Michelangelo and his "antagonists."
   
   This books is both complex and lucid. Goffen has taken great care to use her language tactfully, but not sparingly. She presents many solid arguments with charged notation. The author leaves her reader swimming and fascinated at the same time. Goffen discusses the works of Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, and Titian with solid grounding in the social context and network previously left behind by many scholars. Goffen is in fact so well grounded in the social context of her subject's time--and her own time--that "Renaissance Rivals" can certainly be seen as a modern day "Lives of the Artists". However, this text has not been embellished, nor fabricated by anyone desiring to create a legacy. Rather, Goffen's careful text offers argument and explanation for why Michelangelo and his rivals were indeed such great artists.
   
   This masterful work is a pleasure to read and will certainly stand in the pantheon of scholars as an accessible text written by a brilliant author.



4. A sumptiously illustrated book, written in a chatty, somewhat prolix style. Worthy of five stars, but for two significant problems, warranting the subtraction of two stars:
   
   1) Some annoying factual errors, the most significant of which is the author's repeatedly giving Michelangelo's date of death as 1566, rather than 1564.
   
   2) The binding is simply not up to the task of keeping the heavy pages of the book together. My copy has already split in a couple of places, even though it has been handled gently.

5 comments about Graffiti Brasil (Street Graphics / Street Art).

1. This is the normal story behind people who dont know graffiti in brasil writing a book about it! In this book you can see some of the most famous artists from são paulo and almost nothing on other states. Very nice pictures, but that is not credit to the author who didn't take them!! Good book for OsGemeos lovers though!!



2. Brazil has to showcase some of the best Graf talent the world has to offer, The 'Os-Gemeos Brothers' have to be one of my faves, and this book showcases loads of the awesome imagery this beautiful city is home to. This kind of "extreme' art (!?) has given the world a new appreciation for this type of medium & such distinct styles, It has refreshed the minds of all, and brought color to an otherwise, sometimes, dreary place, due to poverty etc, it's so great to see such ambitious artists expressing themselves to such an extent, and to see difficult political issues get represented, it's a good way for people to get a message across, also brings color & inspires people in this country.



3. The absolute be all and all for information on the capital of contemporary street art graffti style. From the hi to the lo, this book covers the anthropology of this growing art form.



4. Great book that shows a cross section of the Street Art scene in some of Brazil's cities. The author interviews some of the artists, and is able to talk to the history and techniques used, so it is more then just pretty pictures.



5. This is a nice book and all - the photographs are of high quality and the writing is relativley on point - but there is one glaring problem with the book. Considering that the title of the book is "Graffiti Brasil" I find it at the same time strange and disconcerting that all it ammounts to is a circle jerk for the Sao Paulo graff scene.
   
   Although littered with great shots of murals, throwups and pichacao from all over SP there are only a handfull of photos from Rio, Salvador, Minas, Curitiba or any of the other large cities in Brasil that sustain their own very unique scenes. And, to add insult to injury, the pictures collected of cities that are NOT Sao Paulo are shots of some of the most widley seen graffiti in each city. Hell, the one shot of any Bahian graffiti is a small piece of a huge mural in the middle of the tourist section of old town Salvador. Good job Tristian Marco, way to really go looking for new, unknown and unique pieces.
   
   If you're a Paulista or are afflicted with the notion that Brasil doesnt exist outside of SP, this book should be great. But, if you want to actualy LEARN anything about Brasilian graff, you'd be better off saving the money from buying this book and putting it towards a plane ticket.

5 comments about Michelangelo Life Drawings (Dover Art Library).

1. The images are not the highest quality, but if your goal is to get a taste, maybe to have something to copy to learn the style, this book will do fine, and it is not terribly expensive.



2. What is the point of buying having the book when you can't even see it. The print quality of this book is so poor. The images are either too dark or just can't see at all.



3. A good buy for any student of art or anatomy.



4. In this thin but great book, you'll find 46 works of the great master - Michelangelo. Concentrating in Life drawings you'll see studies of the great marble - "David", for "The Battle of cascina",for various figures of the Sistine Chaplle Ceiling,and many more astonishing studies, all vivid in his great manner. Black & white. A real "Must Buy", especially in this price. Michelangelo. The Master.



5. this is a collection of 46 figure drawings michelangelo did. michelangelo was a master painter and sculptor, he rendered figures more beautifully than any other artist ever has. most of the drawings in this book are studies he did for his paintings and sculptures. and he was a master draftsman. the book is in a workbook style binding so it takes up little space, but it is a hardy book. it is well worth the...price.